Continuing to Work

After four days of intensive work our figurine specialists went back to Cyprus to continue their work there. They will be back at Lahav next summer to continue (and hopefully finish) examining our figurines.

In the meantime, after a brief visit to Jerusalem we are back at Lahav working on reconstructing pottery. BTW, getting into East Jerusalem on Friday was quite a chore because it is Ramadan and thousands of pilgrims came to pray at the mosques on Temple Mount. The police blocked so many streets that it was hard to get to where we wanted.

When we left Lahav on Friday, some jars were only at the beginning stage of reconstruction. Here is an example:

In the few days since we returned, this jar received more attention and progress was made in its reconstruction.

And another jar that was further reconstructed.

The rice in these pictures is not leftover from what our forefathers ate, but a way for us to stabilize the parts we glue together. The white marks signify each sherd and contain the identity of each by the license number, basket number, and sherd number. These assure us that we know when and where each piece was found.

Next will be these pieces some of which belong to a jar and others to a bowl.

So, we are chugging along trying to restore/reconstruct as many vessels as possible.